Do individuals matter anymore?

The other day I received a survey and it made me wonder.

When was the last time a survey made me feel engaged and listened to?

Surveys are now part of our cultural narrative.

Some come with a dollar bill in the envelope.

A few are even "mandatory", or so we are informed by the census.

As youth, we quickly learn that surveys are about an aggregate understanding.

A survey is a sign that a brand is disconnected from their audience.

Which is not to say surveys are bad.

But they send a signal that a brand is struggling to understand something.

At best.

At their worst, they scream to us that the customer doesn't really matter unless he or she happens to answer the same as a significant number of the rest of the disillusioned masses.

We know that some faceless manager in an office somewhere needs to make a "business decision" and likely doesn't have a lot of time for a little old outlier like us.

And even knowing all this, we still fill them out from time to time in a vain attempt to be heard or to feel like we were consulted.

There must be a better way. A way to truly listen to another. I'm not referring to when we monitor conversations, hold focus groups or perform stakeholder consultations.

I'm speaking of when we are open to someone else.

When we are putting them first.

In a world increasingly fascinated with "optimizing service delivery" and "experience design", I have to wonder if we've lost sight of the individual as an individual.

What if there is something beyond "customer first" or "customer centred"?

I heard Bob Young, of Red Hat and Lulu fame, speak last night at the Baycrest and MaRS scientist and entrepreneur event.

At the end, someone asked him, "If you could do it all again, what would you do differently with your first company?"

Bob had an answer ready.

He would create Hewlett Packard.

His reason was quite straight forward in that he envied and respected their culture.

A culture built around giving to the community.

A culture that was unstoppable and able to overcome just about any obstacle placed before or inside the company.

Bob spoke about a key aspect of this culture - how they would pay to educate the brightest young minds with no payback or expectations attached.

These youth then wanted to work for Hewlett Packard later in their life or they wanted to become customers of HP.

There was a relationship built around more than anything that can be captured on a spreadsheet.

Hewlett Packard cared.

About individuals.

Maybe it's a leap, but once again I see another example of how an evangelist employee strategy can truly transform brands and organizations.

Some of the most successful evangelist programs move beyond monitoring and empower employees to to listen and to care.

A strategy with non-linear returns that enables an organization to invest in and develop relationships with its communities and individual customers.

I really need to track down the book Bob was speaking of about Hewlett and Packard and the culture they worked so hard to build.

 

[Photo credit: gadl]